Sharon and I helped out for the IB open house today. We were helping to promote TOK. I would never have imagined myself doing that. But I think I’m starting to master the art of “bs-ing”, a skill that is highly prevalent and necessary in the environment I’m studying in. Oh Evangeline was there too.. promoting visual arts. I managed to chat with 2 SMSS juniors.

I encountered anxious parents and students while manning the booth. I’m glad I was able to talk to quite a number of people, putting aside my introverted-ness, or most of it, and attempted to initiate conversations with some people who passed by the booth.Thankfully, I listened carefully to the presentations on introductions to TOK and the related assessments, so I wasn’t that hopeless in interacting with the visitors.

I also had a good laugh (I hadn’t had one in the past 5 days).

So overall, I’m feeling tired and happy.

Study break has just started (notice it can’t be called “June holidays” anymore). Sigh… I’ll be spending tomorrow in church to prepare for the TF anniversary stuff. It’s been a long journey of preparations and I started feeling tired since 2 weeks ago, but I’ll hang on for another week.

My best subjects for this term are Chinese, Chemistry and Econs. Weird huh..

Today, I spent 8 hours in the lab for the Group 4 project. My group consisting of Tiankai, Sharon, Brandon and Justin investigated the amount of Vitamin C in various fruit and found out that among oranges, lemons, tomatoes and apples, oranges had the most Vitamin C per dollar. So if you’re sick, go for oranges!

I have nothing much to type about, so I’ll just post my reflections.

Working together with Tiankai, Justin, Brandon and Sharon for this Group 4 project has been a pleasurable experience. Our group faced 2 major obstacles throughout this journey together.

Firstly, at the planning stage, we ran into trouble coming up with suitable ideas for the Group 4 project. We spent much time coming up with at least 4 proposals before we could finally obtain approval. These times were most trying for us because our patience and resilience were put to the test. Although we had to sacrifice a lot of time and effort in discussing our proposals, this provided the opportunity for us to work together and in the process, learn more about each other.

Secondly, during our execution of the experiment, we ran into problems such as the concentration of iodine was being much higher than the concentration of Vitamin C in the fruit and the filtration of fruit juice being too slow and unproductive. This made us rather frustrated, but we persevered in trying to troubleshoot the situations and when we finally came up with solutions to overcome them, it was heart-warming to see the joy on the faces of my team mates.

Hence, despite the difficulties we faced during the project, we managed to pull through as one and produced a good piece of work.

Being aware of our strengths and weaknesses, my group divided the labour such that those who were better in certain areas like manipulative skills and data processing skills were in charge of duties like titration and analyzing results respectively. My weakness lies in manipulative skills, so I helped out in my stronger areas such as the preparation of the fruit juices and calculations of the data collected while others like Justin and Tiankai were in charge of the titration.

Through this Group 4 project, I became more confident in sharing my ideas. As an introvert, I usually keep quiet most of the time and when I had ideas, I would just keep them to myself for fear that they were foolish ones. This was more so when I was not working with people I was very familiar with. However, I decided to give it a try. I tried giving a minor suggestion at first, and when I saw that my team mates listened and gave my idea much thought and respect, I became more and more confident in giving suggestions and participating in the discussions. Hence, I have emerged from this project a more confident individual.

In conclusion, the Group 4 Project has been an enriching experience for me. I am very sure that the bonds formed with my team mates and lessons learnt from beyond the classroom will stay with me for a long time.

WARNING: Sorry the following post is going to sound quite egoistic, so try not to read on.

Today, dad was the worship leader, my uncle was the pianist, jean and I were playing violin. As usual, we (anyhow) improvised throughout the worship and even during purely instrumental interludes when it is usually harder to cover up if any accident occurs.

It seemed like a normal day of serving although I felt a slight sense of accomplishment because hardly anything went wrong. Also, the people whom I came into contact to voluntarily gave positive feedback about the music and how it helped them worship better.

But this was what made Jean and I stunned. While having lunch at the hawker centre, one lady (from choir) suddenly came up to Jean and I and wanted to clarify some doubts she and a few others had. She asked us whether our dad was actually using a cd for the worship music just now. As expected, Jean and I stared blankly and then burst into laughter.

I’m glad that it’s been proven once again, that music can enhance worship and bring people into the presence of God.

How I spent my 17th birthday

17 is a really large number to handle.

I am really happy to receive the birthday wishes from my friends and family over the past few days, including today.

In the morning, just before assembly, the girls in my OG suddenly appeared at my classroom door, armed with a cake and a card, and singing Happy Birthday. I was pleasantly surprised and it kicked my morning off to a great start.

I won’t mention what happened after assembly..

There was Chem test after school, but looking on the bright side, it’s better than having it on a day like tomorrow because that would mean I’d have to revise for it today.

After the test, I went out for dinner with the “crazy gang”. We ate at Seoul Garden for three hours. That’s how we maximise money.. But really, we were one of the first to arrive at the restaurant and most of those of who came after us left before us. Anyway, I had a great time and yes, we should do it more often.

Technically, my birthday only arrived 3 hours ago.. Well, it’s been a happy day!

Pictures I took in Vietnam..

http://picasaweb.google.com/114016277564464685870/WOWVietnam17May2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCPSejqm-8uCr3wE#

I’m dead tired. I slept at 5am this morning and woke up before 7am. It’s my fault I guess.. But that extra staying-up-late time was unforgettable.

This was my second time to Vietnam. The first time in 2008 (refer to March 2008 archive if you want), I went with my family to Hoi An, which is quieter and less advanced than Ho Chi Min city. Most things were similar, for example, most of the population drove motorcycles and horns remained the popular tool for saying “hi” among drivers.

The past week, crossing roads has only been traumatising. I don’t understand why they authorities can’t invest in some traffic lights for pedestrian crossings. I didn’t manage to spot even a single traffic light for pedestrians. There are plenty of zebra crossings where pedestrians are the ones forced to give way to drivers. The drivers just continue driving even when I’m trying to make my way across the road. I eventually came to the conclusion that the only way to reduce stress levels while crossing roads is to cross with both eyes closed.

I have classified the activities during this WOW trip into 2 main categories – learning about Vietnamese history/culture and helping the Vietnamese in need. Maybe there’s also an “others” section which includes planting mangroves and visiting factories.

I learnt about Vietnamese history through visits to museums and other important landmarks. The Vietnam War’s long-lasting impacts are still felt today. Most of those who didn’t die then suffered injuries for the rest of their lives. Later generations were also affected because the chemicals sprayed (Agent Orange) from the US caused things like miscarriages and abnormal growth of babies. I went to visit a handicraft factory specially for those who suffered injuries and disabilities due to the war. I admire the fact that despite having to go through so much, those workers were determined to move on in life instead of wallowing in their misfortunes.

My class went down to Long Phuoc village, Vinh Long province, along the Mekong River to help the locals living there. We re-built a house for a poor family, of course, with the help of the local men. This house-building was not what I expected it to be. We had to use water palm leaves and cut bamboo for making the house. The houses aren’t made of cement or bricks. We had to use raffia (some woody stuff) strings to tie the leaves to the bamboo structure of the house. It wasn’t easy tying it together because the we didn’t exactly “tie” them together. We had to wind up the string in a certain way such that it was tight and secure - no knots involved. It took me countless tries and patience from the local helpers to finally get it right. Nevertheless, it was a tiring but fulfilling experience.

Back in Ho Chi Min city, my class went to School of the Future (a school for orphans/children with down syndrome) to help out. It wasn’t the type of school I expected – with a nice open area and maybe a playground. Instead, I faced a run-down building which was part of a row of shop houses. We put up some performances and went into groups to play with the children. I helped out with teaching the children origami. It’s not as easy as it seems. Remember, these children are not as intellectually inclined and can only understand Vietnamese, and only a minority of my class knows that “sin chao” means “hi” in Vietnamese. However, despite the language barrier, we tried our best using sign language and the universal language of love (haha.. sorry for the clichéness..) to entertain the children. It made me happy seeing the smiles on the faces of the two boys I was helping.

The WOW trip has also strengthened bonds among my class. Living together for the past 7 days provided a good opportunity for me to learn more about my classmates and appreciate our differences. The times the group of us stayed up till the wee hours of the night to play and just enjoy life were memorable. Sadly, there probably won’t be anymore opportunities to bond like that.

I’m really tired. Bye for now.